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The winner of the GOP debate that cheered blaming unemployed Americans for the jobless recovery was President Barack Obama. After seeing Mitt Romney and Rick Perry lay hands on each other do you want either one to have his finger on the button?

My late grandfather, Baltimore Mayor and Congressman Thomas D'Alesandro Jr, used to say that in politics "you have to throw a punch and take a punch." Few of us will forget the 2000 Senate debate when Rick Lazio invaded Hillary Clinton's personal space waving a pledge, she shrugged him off and never looked back. Imagine if Clinton had laid a hand on Lazio the way Romney did Perry. Taking a punch and brushing it off without hitting back made Clinton a stateswoman. In 2008, Barack Obama, who said "I don't have a glass chin," developed a rope-a-dope strategy that sometimes frustrated supporters but nearly always worked to his advantage.

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry seem to find it much harder to roll with the punches. Romney can't believe Perry is stealing his coronation, Perry can't believe conservatives would deny him for a Yankee, and both look like amateurs next to President Obama.

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